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Daily Mail has given us a good look at what Daniel Craig is wearing in Spectre. For those who want to read about the suit without spoilers, my write-up of this new suit is free of context. There are many more photos posted at imgur (where the photo above is from), but no more photos will follow in this article.

Daniel Craig’s first suit from Spectre that we get to see is a three-piece navy herringbone made by Tom Ford. It’s likely a mohair blend due to the suit’s strong sheen. It’s made in Ford’s well-known style: a button two jacket with wide peaked lapels and strong pagoda shoulders with roped sleeveheads. The shoulders are similar to the Quantum of Solace suits’ shoulders. The dramatic silhouette is inspired by British designer/Savile Row tailor Tommy Nutter’s designs that his former tailors Edward Sexton, Roy Chittleborough and Joe Morgan still make today. I recommend checking out their work at the links above. Though Spectre is the third Bond film to feature Tom Ford’s suits, this is the first time Bond is wearing Ford’s signature style full-on. Craig’s suit jacket is still too tight and too short like the Skyfall suits, but it’s not as short and not quite as tight. Also, the jacket’s larger shoulders combined with a not-as-short length make Craig’s Bond look like the commanding man he should be. This is where Spectre‘s suits have greatly succeeded over Skyfall‘s. The narrow shoulders and shrunken cut of the Skyfall suits manage to make the muscular Daniel Craig look rather wimpy. The Skyfall suits look like they are a full chest size and length too small whereas this suit from Spectre looks only just a little too tight.

The suit jacket has wide pocket flaps with a ticket pocket, a single vent and five-button cuffs with the last button left open. The jacket’s lapels—being both very wide and peaked—make this suit rather flashy for a secret agent. Peaked lapels on a single-breasted jacket were popular in the 1930s and 40s and are popular again now, but they are not a conservative choice. James Bond previously wears peaked lapels on single-breasted suit jackets in Diamonds Are Forever and Casino Royale. The single vent—like in Skyfall—isn’t particularly British for a dressy worsted suit, but there’s technically nothing wrong with it. Sean Connery’s Bond wears single-vented suits fairly often. This is the style of suit jacket Tom Ford favours on himself, so he may have had more personal input this time around. Roger Moore even wears a suit in a very similar style in his film Street People.

The suit’s waistcoat has six buttons with the bottom button left open. Like the jacket, it looks a little too tight, but Craig doesn’t look like he is going to burst the buttons off it like the Hulk. The trousers have a flat front, somewhat low rise, slide-buckle side adjusters, narrow tapered legs—which are, again, just a little too snug—and plain hems. Yes, that’s right, Bond does not wear turn-ups (cuffs) this time. Only once or twice over the past twenty years has Bond worn suit trousers without turn-ups. The trousers have slipped down, revealing the shirt below the waistcoat. Braces would have helped the shirt to not show, and since Bond is wearing a waistcoat they would be completely hidden.

Daniel Craig not only wears Tom Ford’s preferred suit style but also Ford’s preferred shirt collar. Craig’s white shirt has a point collar with eyelets for a collar pin to stick through it. The silver collar pin is the kind with balls on the end that unscrew to slide through the holes in the collar. It’s the cleanest-looking type of collar pin, but it’s the most affected kind of collar pin as well. Ford himself prefers a collar without eyelets and a gold safety pin that sticks through the collar. Nevertheless, any collar pin is too fussy for the literary Bond’s simple tastes, and it’s a step beyond Skyfall’s tab collars. Pierce Brosnan was a big fan of the collar pin in Remington Steele since it was a popular style in the 1980s. One thing this shirt might actually get right is the cuff style. Click on the image at the top to enlarge and you might see a cocktail cuff! James Bond has not worn cocktail cuffs since Moonraker (not counting Never Say Never Again), but unless my eyes are deceiving me, it looks like he is wearing cocktail cuffs again. A win for the cocktail cuff fans! Costume designer Jany Temime deserves credit for this brilliant homage to the early Bond films. For those who aren’t fans of the cocktail cuffs they add yet another level of flashiness to the outfit.

Craig’s tie is a black-on-black pattern and tied in a windsor knot, another uncharacteristic style for Bond, but it certainly wouldn’t be Bond’s first windsor knot. The white pocket square with a navy border is stuffed in the pocket, though it’s not stuffed in deep enough. It looks like he’s trying to hard to show it off, whereas just a little of it showing from behind the wide peaked lapels would have been more effective.

The black double-monk ankle boots are the Crockett & Jones Camberley. They have a cap toe and Dainite studded rubber sole. Monk boots are not to be confused with Jodhpur boots; monk boots have the quarters over the vamp whilst jodhpur boots have the vamp over the quaters. Though atypical, the boots are actually very Bond-like, recalling a mix of Sean Connery’s and Pierce Brosnan’s Bonds’ footwear. Connery wears black ankle boots with some of his suits in Goldfinger and Thunderball. Pierce Brosnan wears black monk shoes with some of his suits in The World Is Not Enough. The closest shoes to these previously worn by Bond are Sean Connery’s brown monk boots in Diamonds Are Forever that he wears with his light grey suit, cream suit and brown checked sports coat. Boots work well with the narrow suit trousers since narrow trousers cover less and are more likely to show sock with regular shoes. Monk boots also respect the literary Bond, who “abhorred shoe-laces,” as Ian Fleming wrote in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. On the other hand, these monk boots are amongst Bond’s flashiest footwear. They might be even flashier than Roger Moore’s Gucci and Ferragamo horse-bit slip-ons!

Over the suit Daniel Craig wears a black greatcoat-inspired topcoat that has many similarities to the greatcoat he wears in Quantum of Solace. It is probably made by Tom Ford. The double-breasted coat is knee-length and has eight buttons on the front with four to button. The coat also has an ulster collar, meaning the coat has revers than can fold over button up at the neck. The ulster collar is more practical but less dressy than peaked lapels. The back of the coat has a half belt with buttons. The style of coat recalls James Bond’s military origins. Craig only buttons the coat’s second button from the top, which causes the rather lightweight topcoat to fall out of shape and rumple a bit. On top of that, the coat is a little too tight around the waist. It’s difficult to tell if the fit, the belt’s setting or the way Craig buttons the coat is the main cause of the rumpling. Both with and without the topcoat, Craig wears black perforated leather gloves that have a strap on top of the wrist. They go well with the black topcoat, but without the topcoat they look villainous. Craig wears sunglasses again in Spectre, and they’re probably made by Tom Ford.

Overall this first clear look of the style in Spectre is very interesting, and costume designer Jany Temime has done a better job with this suit in her second Bond film than she did with any of the suits in Skyfall. Though we see a fit problem again, it’s not as bad as it was in Skyfall. The clothing styles respect James Bond tradition in some areas—like the colours of the clothes, the cocktail cuffs, the boots (in some ways) and the topcoat—and ignore it in others—like the peaked lapels, the boots (in other ways) and the collar pin. The clothes are certainly too flashy for Bond, but at the same time they are very stylish and interesting.

Most of Sean Connery’s tailored clothing in Goldfinger was first featured in the 1964 film Woman of Straw, which was made just before Goldfinger. Some of the suits fit the Woman of Straw setting much better than they fit Goldfinger. The brown houndstooth check suit is especially more fitting for Woman of Straw than it is for Goldfinger. In Woman of Straw Connery wears the suit on a country estate, whilst in Goldfinger he wears it to the office for briefing from M. James Bond occasionally knowingly breaks the rules, and I certainly don’t just mean the rules of how to dress properly. Nevertheless, wearing this country suit to the office is not likely something M appreciated. In Woman of Straw we get to see this beautiful suit in its intended setting.

The suit is a somewhat heavy mid brown and black fine houndstooth check made by Anthony Sinclair. The button two jacket is cut with natural shoulders, a draped chest and a gently suppressed waist. It has country details like slanted flap pockets with a ticket pocket and a long single vent. The jacket has four buttons on the cuffs. The trousers have double forward pleats, button-tab side-adjusters and tapered legs. Unlike in Goldfinger, Connery does not wear an odd waistcoat with this suit in Woman of Straw, though he does wear that beige waistcoat with his barleycorn tweed hacking jacket. The lack of waistcoat gives this suit a much different look than it has in Goldfinger.

The suit’s brown houndstooth check cloth close up

A blue shirt and blue tie also make the suit look much different than it does in Goldfinger. Blue offers a nice colour contrast to brown whilst cooling down the brown outfit to better flatter Sean Connery’s cool complexion, but for blue and brown to work together they need to have contrast in value. Dark brown and navy don’t go so well together, and neither does light brown and light blue. See the image below of the light brown overcoat and light blue shirt for a combination that doesn’t clash but doesn’t quite work so well either. But light brown with navy works and dark brown with light blue works. The latter is evident here.

The pale blue shirt is made in the same style as Connery’s shirts in Goldfinger, with a wide spread collar, rounded double cuffs and placket stitched close to the centre. The steel blue repp silk tie is tied in a very small four-in-hand knot. Like in Goldfinger, Connery wears this suit in Woman of Straw with a white linen handkerchief folded in a single point in his breast pocket. It may have just been left in the pocket from Woman of Straw when he wears the suit in Goldfinger.

Over this suit Connery wears a light brown donegal tweed overcoat that is not worn in Goldfinger. The coat is like a cross between a single-breasted coat and a double-breasted coat in that it has a large overlap and peaked lapels, but the overlap isn’t as large as most double-breasted coats and there is only one column of buttons to fasten. The additional overlap is there for extra warmth. The coat has a fly front that hides the buttons, but if the one column buttons showed they would be off-centre. The coat has slanted hip pockets with flaps, a breast welt pocket, a single vent in the rear and plain cuffs with a short vent.The coat’s length is to just below the knee, making it a very warm, practical coat for the country. This overcoat may have also been made by Anthony Sinclair.

Pierce Brosnan’s navy cashmere double-breasted overcoat that he wears over his grey pinstripe suit in Die Another Day is the last tailored piece of James Bond’s wardrobe this blog has left to cover before the clothing in Spectre is revealed. Pierce Brosnan wears at least one overcoat in every one of his Bond films, and this is his third double-breasted overcoat after the vicuna-coloured overcoat in Tomorrow Never Dies and the funereal black overcoat in The World Is Not Enough. The navy Brioni overcoat is full-length to just below the knee and has six buttons with two to close. The lapels are peaked with a buttonhole on both sides. The overcoat has a half belt in back attached only at the ends, a long single vent, four buttons on the cuffs and straight, flapped pockets. Bond wears the collar up, which keeps the wind off his neck and reveals the navy velvet undercollar.

Though full-length overcoats are not very popular right now—shorter coats are trendy and are almost all that’s available currently—they look the most elegant of all overcoats and keep the body the warmest. Double-breasted overcoats are warmer than single-breasted overcoats due to the extra layer in front. Bond, however, doesn’t benefit from the warmth of his overcoat since he wears it open. It must not be that cold. Or, perhaps like his grey suit underneath, the overcoat has become too tight to button. London, where Bond wears this coat, ocassions has very cold winters, and the warmth of a double-breasted coat is very beneficial whether the winter is severe or mild.

With the overcoat, Bond wears dark brown leather gloves with three points sewn on the back of the hand. The gloves are sewn with the seams on the outside, which are more comfortable than seams on the inside but are also more prone to wear. The gloves have a V-shaped palm vent to ease the glove onto the hand.

In the 1984 film The Naked Face, Roger Moore plays psychiatrist Judd Stevens who dresses in seasonal autumn clothing in the Anglo-American tradition. I previously wrote about Moore’s blue and beige barleycorn tweed jacket in The Naked Face, and most of the clothes in the film follow in a similar vein. Of all the tailored clothing in the film, only a light brown needlecord suit appears to be made by Moore’s regular tailor at the time, Douglas Hayward. Hayward made Moore’s beautiful tailored clothing for For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy and A View to a Kill. This suit is more casual than what Hayward made for the Bond films, and, though the cut is the same as what Moore wore as Bond at the time, it’s probably not a suit Bond would wear. Needlecord, also known as pinwale, is a fine wale cotton corduroy that is perfect for autumn in Chicago, where the film takes place.

Like Roger Moore’s Douglas Hayward suits in his last three James Bond films, this suit jacket is cut with a clean chest and natural shoulders with gently roped sleeveheads. The button-two jacket also has the same low button stance and is identically detailed to most of Moore’s Bond suit jackets with flapped pockets, three buttons on the cuffs and double vents. The suit trousers are also like Moore’s trousers in his Bond films at the time: they have a straight leg and frogmouth pockets and are worn with a belt. Apart from the jacket’s low button stance, the suit looks timeless.

All of Moore’s shirts in The Naked Face are made by his regular shirtmaker Frank Foster, who made shirts for Moore in all of his Bond films. Moore wears this suit with two different shirts: a blue and white hairline stripe shirt with a spread collar—which is very similar to the shirt he wears with his navy suit in Octopussy—and an ecru shirt with a button-down spread collar. The button-down collar is much wider than the typical American button-down collar, but it still has a gentle roll. This is possibly what Roger Moore’s button-down collars in A View to a Kill would look like if worn buttoned with a tie. Both shirts have a placket with Foster’s identifying stitching close to the centre and extra-rounded single-button cuffs. Though the buttons aren’t clearly seen on these two shirts’ cuffs, another blue and white hairline stripe shirt in the film has a large cuff button like on Foster’s “Lapidus” tab cuffs. It’s possible that these two shirts also have the same large button on the cuffs.

Notice the poorly-ironed shirt collar. On collars with a sewn interfacing, they can easily bunch up at the stitching. Judd Stevens is well-dressed, but he isn’t faultless like James Bond

With this suit Moore wears a grey-purple knitted wool tie with flat ends. Wool ties go especially nice with corduroy since they complement the rustic, autumnal look, and they have more contrast with corduroy than they do with the other traditional pairings like flannel and tweed. Knitted wool ties are slightly less formal than knitted silk ties, which makes them a great match for such a casual suit like corduroy. The tie’s colour, grey with a hint of purple, is rather dull compared to the rest of the outfit and slightly washes out Moore’s warm complexion. Moore ties it in a four-in-hand knot, and the knot ends up quite wide due to the tie’s bulk.

Moore’s slip-on shoes and belt are dark brown, and the belt’s brass buckle goes well with the light brown colour of the suit. Moore wears dark brown leather gloves with the suit.

Over the suit, Moore wears a single-breasted camelhair overcoat. The full-length overcoat hits just below the knee, which keeps Moore decently warm in the cold and windy Chicago. Like the suit, it has natural shoulders with roped sleeveheads. The overcoat has set-in sleeves, three buttons down the front, swelled edges, straight flapped hip pockets, a welted breast pocket, three buttons on the cuffs and a single vent. He wears the collar turned up for extra warmth. He also keeps warm in a light brown wool flat cap, something James Bond would never wear. They’re associated with older working class men, a category Bond is never associated with. With the cap and large glasses on, Moore looks nothing like James Bond. Over the suit and under the overcoat, Moore drapes a a checked Burberry—or Burberry-style—scarf around his neck. The scarf’s base colour is pale green, the scarf’s check has navy and sky blue stripes lengthwise with black and cream stripes crosswise, and the scarf has a navy lengthwise overcheck and a rust-coloured crosswise overcheck.

Though Roger Moore’s needlecord suit in The Naked Face may not be something James Bond would wear, it’s an elegant suit for informal cool-weather wear. The outfit has a timeless look that would look just as great during this autumn season as it did thirty years ago.

Stephen Boyd stars as Philip Scott in the 1968 spy thriller Assignment K, and throughout the film he wears suits by Douglas Hayward. Douglas Hayward tailored Roger Moore’s suits for For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy and A View to a Kill, and he also made suits for Michael Caine, Terence Stamp, Steve McQueen and many other stars. One of the four suits that Boyd wears in Assignment K is a medium grey worsted flannel double-breasted suit. Worsted flannel is can be lighter in weight than the traditional woollen flannel, but being flannel it still has a fuzzy nap. The serge weave is visible under the nap on a worsted flannel, whilst no weave is visible on a woollen flannel. Worsted flannel has a sleeker look than woollen flannel does, but the nap keeps him warm in West Germany’s winter.

Boyd’s double-breasted suit jacket has the traditional arrangement of six buttons with two to button, and it is tailored with natural shoulders, a clean chest and suppressed waist. The jacket’s peaked lapels are made in the Tautz style, which means they have a horizontal gorge. They look slightly less formal than standard peaked lapels that point up towards the shoulder. The jacket also has double vents, three buttons on the cuffs, flapped pockets and a royal blue lining. The suit trousers’ legs taper to the knee and are straight from the knee to the plain hem. Not much of the the trousers’ legs are seen, but if they match Boyd’s other suit trousers in the film they have frogmouth pockets and are worn with a belt. The front does not have pleats, but it is probably darted.

Boyd’s sky blue shirt is likely made by Frank Foster. It has a wide spread collar, square double cuffs attached to the sleeves with shirring, rear side pleats, rear darts and a placket stitched close to the centre. Boyd wears two different ties with this suit: the first is solid silver and the second is solid black. Boyd’s shoes are black. Over the suit, Boyd wears a charcoal melton wool overcoat, which he wears over every suit in the film. The coat is three-quarter length to just above the knee. It has three buttons down the front, three buttons on the cuffs, slanted flap pockets and a rear vent. Like the suit jacket, the overcoat has natural shoulders. With the overcoat, Boyd wears dark grey suede gloves.

Assignment K has a few connections to James Bond besides both using tailor Douglas Hayward. The director of this film Val Guest, directed parts of the Casino Royale spoof a year earlier. Assignment K also features the actor Jan Werich, who was originally cast as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice. Producer Albert Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert of You Only Live Twice decided that Werich was not right for the villainous role and replaced him with Donald Pleasence.

A buttonhole in each lapel on Roger Moore’s Douglas Hayward blazer in For Your Eyes Only

Why do double-breasted jackets and coats often have a buttonhole at the top of each lapel whilst single-breasted jackets and coats only have a buttonhole at the top of the left lapel? It is because double-breasted jackets and coats symmetrically have both buttons and buttonholes down the left and right sides whilst a single-breasted jacket or coat only has buttons down the right side and buttonholes down the left side. The buttonholes at the top of the lapels reflect what’s below. Though peaked lapels on a double-breasted jacket never fold over and close like single-breasted notch lapels sometimes do on sports coats, pea coats and some double-breasted overcoats—like the greatcoat—are able to fasten up to the top. These coats do have a button on each side either under the collar or at the top of the chest for the lapels to fold over and fasten to. The two buttonholes on a double-breasted coat are carried over from these more functional garments.

A buttonhole in each lapel on Pierce Brosnan’s double-breasted Brioni overcoat in Tomorrow Never Dies

A buttonhole only in the left lapel in Roger Moore’s double-breasted Cyril Castle suit jacket in The Man with the Golden Gun

Cyril Castle, however, only put a single buttonhole in the left lapel in Roger Moore’s double-breasted chesterfield and silk suit jacket in Live and Let Die and Roger Moore’s double-breasted suits, blazer and white dinner jacket in The Man with the Golden Gun. A single lapel buttonhole on a suit jacket discards the ancestry and symmetry of having two lapel buttonholes for instead considering only the actual usage of a suit jacket’s lapel buttonhole: the boutonnière. Even when there is a buttonhole in both lapels, only the left buttonhole should be used for a boutonnière if you are so inclined to wear a boutonnière.

Daniel Craig’s Billy Reid pea coat in Skyfall also only has a lapel buttonhole on the left, which takes into account the reality that even if the lapels were closed, only the left side would actually fasten over to a button on the right. There wouldn’t be a jigger button at the top of the coat like there is at the waist. Since the Billy Reid pea coat has peaked lapels and no buttons at the top, it actually can’t close at the top like a traditional pea coat could anyway.

No buttonholes in the lapels of Roger Moore’s double-breasted Angelo Roma dinner jacket in Moonraker

Angelo Vitucci didn’t put any lapel buttonholes in the two double-breasted dinner jackets in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker and the double-breasted blazer in Moonraker. This is the coward’s solution for those who can’t decide if a double-breasted jacket should have a lapel buttonhole in the left lapel or both lapels. Though history and symmetry says there should be a buttonhole in each lapel of a double-breasted jacket, it’s not a faux pas to have one buttonhole only in the left lapel. No lapel buttonholes at all ends up looking cheap and leaves no place to wear a flower.

In the 1990 film The Russia House, Sean Connery plays Bartholomew “Barley” Scott Blair, the head of a British publishing film turned spy. Though the character is a spy, he’s nothing like James Bond. Connery dresses how an older man in Britain would traditionally dress, and he wears layers to withstand Moscow’s cold weather. Connery’s wardrobe in the film consists of V-neck jumpers, knitted ties, informal outercoats, a navy suit, a checked jacket and a navy blazer.

Connery’s button two navy blazer has natural shoulders that go against the trendy large shoulder of 1990, but slightly wide lapels and the moderately low gorge and button stance reflect the fashions of the time. Though blazers ordinarily have vents in the rear due to their sporty nature, this one reflects the fashions of 1990 and has no vent. Like Connery’s navy blazer in Dr. No, this blazer also has an open patch breast pocket and open patch hip pockets, swelled edges and two buttons on the cuffs. This blazer’s buttons are brass. Bonhams in Knightsbridge auctioned the blazer on 16 June 2009 for £120. The blazer was made for Sean Connery by the costumiers Angels.

Under the blazer, Connery wears a medium grey sleeveless, V-neck jumper, which both keeps Connery warm and makes the outfit more casual. Connery’s dark green corduroy trousers have double forward pleats and are worn with a brown alligator-texture belt. The ecru shirt has a point collar, rounded single-button cuffs, a front placket and rear shoulder pleats. Connery wears a knitted tie with red and navy horizontal stripes, and it’s most likely tied in a half windsor knot. Connery’s shoes are dark brown.

Over the blazer, Connery wears a camel-coloured, heavy woollen duffle coat. The duffle coat is a casual coat characterised by its toggle closure. Connery’s coat has four wooden toggles that fasten with rope, and they go down the front from the collar to the waist. The coat is knee-length without a vent in the rear, but no vent is needed when the coat is free to spread apart in front below the waist. The coat has shoulder patches, two open patch pockets, buttoned straps on the sleeves and a hood. There are straps to button around the neck that connect with elastic around the back of the neck. Connery also keeps warm with an olive wool or cashmere scarf and a brown felt fedora with a centre dent, front pinch and brown ribbon.

The always well-tailored Emilio Largo, played by Adolfo Celi, is introduced in Thunderball wearing a charcoal three-piece suit. The suit is probably made of worsted flannel since it has a fuzzy nap but doesn’t look as heavy as the typical flannel. The button three jacket is tailored with very strong, straight shoulders and a clean chest. The narrow lapels gently roll over the top button. The jacket also has jetted pockets, three-button cuffs and no vent. The overall cut as well as the stylistic details are all very characteristic of a continental suit. Since the jacket has little fullness in the chest or flare at the shirt, it doesn’t look like an English suit. And neither the Italian character Largo nor the Italian actor Adolfo Celi would have likely used an English tailor. An Italian tailor would most likely have made this suit.

Little is seen of the waistcoat and trousers. Since the top button of the waistcoat isn’t particularly high, I would guess that the waistcoat has five buttons. The trousers have a tapered leg with turn-ups. They are probably pleated, and I would guess they have reverse pleats since the suit is likely of Italian origin. The Italian tailors almost always make their trousers with reverse pleats.

Largo’s cream shirt has a spread collar and double cuffs. He uses a four-in-hand knot to tie his black tie with white polka dots. His socks and shoes are black.

Over the suit Largo wears a three-quarter-length camelhair coat. The button three coat has notched lapels, swelled edges, turnback cuffs and a single vent. He wears the coat draped over his shoulders as if it were a cape, and I wouldn’t recommend wearing a coat in such a manner since that seems like something only a flamboyant villain would do. He also wears his charcoal trilby like a dandy: tilted and with the brim turned up all the way around. The hat’s crown has a centre dent and a front pinch, and the roughly 2 1/4″ brim has a sewn overwelt. His cream leather gloves take his outerwear yet another step further into flamboyance.

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